Review: Delta Shake Shack Burger (Is It Any Good?)
In November 2024, Delta announced they would be serving Shake Shack burgers on select domestic routes from Boston. This was a surprising partnership to serve branded chain food on Delta Air Lines flights. I finally manged to hop on a flight from Boston with the Shake Shack burgers, so the question has to be asked; Is a Shake Shack burger good at 40,000 feet?
Delta started serving Shake Shack burgers on December 1st, and it is expected through 2025 on most domestic flights leaving Boston during a lunch or dinner time flight. I got my burger by taking the 6PM departure from Boston to Atlanta in January 2025.
To make it extra special, I managed to pick a 321neo flight with the winged privacy seats and IFE screens that take bluetooth connections.
About a week before my flight, I received an email from Delta to preselect my meal option for my flight. It's worth noting that you must preorder the Shake Shack burger, it's not available to select onboard the aircraft.
About 30 minutes after takeoff, I had the burger in front of me, and it looked good! It was probably the best looking burger that I've seen on an airplane. I had the United burger awhile back, and it was an overcooked mess with cheese that melted out of the burger as if it was cooked on too high of a heat for too long.
This burger was perfectly cooked, and while the cheese looks completely melted, it was firmly attached to the burger and not overly melted into the burger. Along with the burger I was served a salad with Caesar dressing (in my option the better salad dressing compared to the oil and vinegar you usually get), sea salt Miss Vickie's chips, your toppings for the burger and a dark chocolate brownie.
I loaded my burger up with the special sauce, pickles, tomatoes, onion, and lettuce. And if I do say so myself, I think that burger looks pretty appetizing. I think it's perfect that all the toppings come on the side to help picky eaters, and I think if they came on the top, they would turn the bread pretty soggy and wilt the lettuce.
The insides were perfectly warm and cooked through, I think due to the thinness of the meat, it is more easily to be cooked through while not losing any moisture or drying out. Everything was delicious.
The salad and chips were also very good, I much prefer a real salad dressing as compared to the oil they usually serve on Delta catered meals. I would gladly take that salad any day. Also, while I like Salt & Vinegar chips, the salted ones were perfectly acceptable. If you're watching what you eat, this meal is very salt forward with a salty Caesar dressing, salted chips, and a brownie with salt flakes on the top. For a meal in the air, it extenuates the flavor of the dish but can leave you quite parched.
The brownie was the perfect cap to the meal, it was moist and the dark chocolate and chocolate bits were perfect. As mentioned, it was quite salty as the rest of the food with finishing salt on the top.
Overall, I think this is one of the best meals that I've had on a domestic US flight, it ranks very highly even compared to Delta's Fox Bro's BBQ that can be sometimes hit or miss. This knocked it out of the park on the first go.
I didn't leave anything left on the plate when I was finished, it was that good. I normally am someone who likes a thicker burger cooked to about medium, but in an airplane environment that would be impossible without someone onboard with a grill. It's the perfect burger choice for an airplane, and I hope it continues past 2025 and expands to additional markets. If I could, I would order this burger on every flight I take.
